Susan Mallery: Sweet Trouble

She parked on the street and grabbed more pictures from her purse. Convincing Nicole who had fathered Jesse’s child was nearly as important as convincing Matt, although for very different reasons.

She got out of her car and walked up the main path. As she approached the front door, her shoulders slumped. The old feelings she’d thought she’d gotten over returned. The voices that said she was nothing but a screwup. That she ruined everything she touched, didn’t appreciate anything.

“Stop!” she said aloud, pausing in front of the steps. “I’m not that person anymore.”

She wasn’t. She’d grown up and changed. She was responsible, a single mother who’d made it on her own. When Jesse left, Nicole had claimed she would come crawling back in a matter of weeks. That hadn’t happened.

After squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, she walked up the stairs, then pressed the bell and waited.

She heard yelling from inside, and the sound of running feet. The front door jerked open and a little boy stared up at her.

“Who are you?” he demanded loudly, his voice competing with the sound of babies crying. Apparently both twins were awake and not happy.

“Eric, I’ve told you. Don’t answer the door without checking with me first. And don’t ask who the person is.”

Eric had blond hair and blue eyes like his mom. He was the same size as Gabe and just about the same age. He sighed and addressed Jesse.

“I’m not supposed to answer the door on my own.”

“I heard. So maybe you want to go get your mom.”

“I’m here,” Nicole said, walking around the corner, carrying a baby in her arms. “Can I help-”

She came to a stop. Her eyes widened and all the color left her face.

“Hi,” Jesse said, feeling awkward and unsure of her welcome. “It’s been a long time.”

Nicole stared. “Jesse?”

“It’s me.”

“I can’t believe it.” In the distance, a baby continued to cry. Nicole glanced in that direction. “It’s Molly. Holding them both when they need to be walked is impossible. Hawk’s out of town. He didn’t want to leave, but he and Brittany had planned the trip celebrating her graduation from college for a while and it didn’t seem fair to cancel it because I have twins who aren’t sleeping.” She rocked the crying baby in her arms and looked desperate.

“I can help,” Jesse said, stepping in the house without being invited. “Here. Let me take this one.”

“Are you sure?” Nicole asked, obviously reluctant to hand over her baby.

“I raised one myself,” she said.

“Right. Sure. Here.”

Jesse took the wrapped baby and smiled down at her. “Hello, pretty girl. How are you? Keeping mom up? She’ll remember and punish you later. You might want to think that through.”

The baby’s eyes focused on her face, then slowly began to close. Nicole hesitated a second, before retreating to the back of the house to collect Molly. Eric stared at her.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m your aunt Jesse,” she said as she closed the front door, stepped over several toys and followed him to a family room.

There was a sofa and television, along with toys and a couple of baskets of laundry. A stack of diapers sat in one chair. Shoes littered the hallway leading to the kitchen.

Jesse remembered Nicole’s house being mostly tidy and quiet. It was a place Jesse had never felt at home. While this place made her feel at ease, she couldn’t believe her perfect sister lived in chaos.

A small, hairy white dog raced through the room, followed by a slightly larger black-and-white dog. Pets? Nicole had pets?

“That’s Sheila,” Eric told her. “Rambo is her son. Like I’m my daddy’s son.” He seemed proud of the fact.

Nicole returned with a second infant and collapsed in a chair.

“Clear a space,” she murmured, rocking her daughter with a desperation that spoke of many nights without sleep. “Come on, Molly. It can’t be that bad, can it?”

Kim, the baby Jesse held, had quieted enough for her to ask, “Want me to put her down?”

Nicole shook her head. “She won’t sleep. She’ll wake right up.”

“We can try,” Jesse said, knowing getting the twins into their own cribs was the only solution that was going to let Nicole rest.

Nicole’s gaze narrowed, then she shrugged. “Whatever. They’re in the sitting area off our bedroom. They have a room upstairs, but it got to be too far to walk when I realized they weren’t ever going to sleep.”

Her voice was thick with emotion, as if she was inches from losing it all.

“I’ll show you,” Eric said. He’d been hovering by his mom. Now he led the way down a short hallway and into the master suite.

Jesse had the impression of space, large furniture and a view of a massive backyard. She followed Eric into what would usually be the master bedroom retreat area. A love seat and coffee table had been pushed to the side. Two cribs stood in the middle of the space.

“This one is Kim’s,” Eric told her, pointing to the one on the right.

She smiled at him. “Wow. You’re very helpful. I’m sure your mom is happy to have you around. You’re a great big brother.”

Eric beamed. “I’m the man of the house while Daddy’s gone.”

“Your mom is so lucky.”

She eased the sleeping baby into the crib. Kim stayed asleep. Jesse wound the mobile above the crib and motioned for Eric to join her as she backed out of the room.

They returned to the family room. Nicole stared at her.

“She’s sleeping?”

“Yes. Why don’t I take Molly while you go grab a shower?”

Nicole hesitated, as if she was going to argue, then she handed over the infant and hurried down the hall.

Jesse gazed at the sleepy baby in her arms. “Do you have one of those chairs that rocks the baby?” she asked Eric.

He nodded and pointed to the far corner.

Jesse dug it out from behind a pile of towels and set it in front of the sofa. Molly fussed when she was put in, but quieted as the chair began to crank back and forth.

The piles of laundry needed attention first, Jesse thought. “Where are the washer and dryer?” she asked Eric.

He showed her the utility room off the kitchen. She loaded in towels, added soap and started the machine. She took baby clothes out of the dryer and quickly folded them, giving him socks to match up.

“Excellent job,” she told him, as she cleaned off the kitchen table, wiped it down, then stacked the clean clothes in piles. “Are you thirsty?”

“Uh-huh. I can have juice.”

There were boxes in the fridge. She got him settled with his drink, then loaded the dishwasher with as much as she could fit in before filling the sink and washing the big pots and pans by hand. She just started drying them when Nicole walked into the kitchen.

“Where’s Molly?” she asked.

Jesse pointed to the slumbering baby in the rocking chair. “There’s a load of towels going in the washer. The dishwasher is full, but I didn’t know if it would pull too much hot water from your shower, so I waited.”

Nicole sank into a chair at the table. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I don’t mind.” She knew what it was like to be overwhelmed, to think she was never going to get enough rest to feel human again.

The doorbell rang. Nicole winced, but Eric went running. “It’s Billy and his mom,” he yelled. Molly started to cry.

“I’ll take the baby,” Jesse said.

“Thanks. Eric’s spending the afternoon at his friend’s house. I’ll be right back.”

While Jesse soothed Molly back to sleep, Nicole saw off her son, then returned to the kitchen, looking exhausted. They stood staring at each other for an awkward second.